Ke Jie, the Go champion who pledged never to challenge an Artificial Intelligence again after being trounced by DeepMind’s AlphaGo, is going to play against a machine once more. World’s No. 1 Ke is reportedly going to pit its talent against a number of Go-playing AIs in a series of man-vs-computer encounters to be held in […]

Apple may not be front and centre in the race to create driverless cars, but its fabled plans for autonomous vehicles are not to be discounted either. The tech giant has just applied for a new patent for self-driving technology. The document, published on Thursday, offers a compelling glimpse on how Apple thinks self-driving cars could move around […]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has found that cab-hailing service Uber should be classified as a transport business— and not a digital company— under EU regulation. The ruling might prove to be a crushing blow to the San Francisco-based company, which had argued it should be regarded as a mere technological middleman between drivers and possible passengers— a status that […]

China is making it harder for foreign companies to test driverless vehicles on the country’s roads, as authorities fear that self-driving cars could be collecting information and images for espionage. While on-road testing is not yet allowed in China, new regulation expected to come out early next year is expected to include such restrictions. The Financial […]

UPDATE: Ars Technica reports that on Thursday, following the backlash, SPCA decided to stop using Knightscope robots. A charity took flak after using bulky security robots to keep homeless people away from its animal shelter in San Francisco. Knightscope security automata have been around since 2013 and are a familiar presence in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Earlier this year, the […]

Microsoft has announced a $50 million (£37.56 million) investment in AI for Earth— its programme to use artificial intelligence to pursue sustainability and humanitarian goals. The tech giant launched the initiative — with an initial investment of $2 million (£1.5 million)— in summer 2017. Since then, the project has doled out grants to 35 companies […]

Britain’s Digital Catapult has announced the creation of a a “Machine Intelligence Garage” providing Artificial Intelligence and machine learning startups access to computing power and specific expertise. The government-backed innovation-boosting organisation revealed the new programme on Thursday, explaining that the garage will be kick-started on 23 January 2018, and run for a period of three […]

Are we getting closer to the much-fabled intelligence explosion? Google researchers have created an artificial intelligence able to design and build other AIs; the news now is that this AI’s first “child” is better at recognising images than any smart system humans have ever made. Cue the shrieks of terror from journalists, commenters and sundry AI-doomsayers, […]

The United States of America are falling behind in the Artificial Intelligence arms race, as China and Russia are striding ahead with the creation of AI-powered weapons, a new report revealed. The study— by data analysis group Govini and ex US Deputy Secretary of Defence Robert Work— flagged up how the American Department of Defence risks losing […]

Russia’s Internet giant (aka “Russia’s Google”) Yandex has trialled its driverless Toyota Prius taxis in a snow-covered Russian road last weekend, notching up about 300 kilometres overall during the test. The trial, which involved two cars, was interesting in that it allowed to demo how self-driving vehicles would fare in a scenario other than sunny California’s highways. […]